CFCC to offer program in rising field of mechatronics

Saturday

Aug 9, 2014 at 10:30 AM

The program will train students to operate and maintain mechatronic machines.

By Wayne FaulknerWayne.Faulkner@StarNewsOnline.com

Telvin Hall is an example of just how much manufacturing has changed.He is the only person needed to operate a sophisticated machine at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy that performs a key step in making fuel bundles for shipment to nuclear power plants around the world.Hall's job shows that manufacturing these days is more than pushing buttons. In fact, jobs at some companies across the nation are going unfilled because workers just don't have the skills needed for advanced manufacturing. Cape Fear Community College hopes to provide those skills in a new program starting this week. The program will train students to operate and maintain mechatronic machines.Mechatronics is a combination of mechanical engineering, computing and electronics used in development of new manufacturing techniques.The machine that Hall operates at GE Hitachi falls into the category.At GE Hitachi's fuel manufacturing operations, the production process goes like this: Nuclear pellets are put into tubes, which are assembled into bundles. The bundles are then placed in channels.The latter is where Hall's skills come into play. He operates the channel machining center, which performs the functions that workers on multiple machines would have done in years past, said Amir Vexler, plant manager/fuel manufacturing operation at GE Hitachi's facility in Castle Hayne."That entire cell is used to machine and form the top end of the channel," Vexler said, and performs three or four operations. In years past, he said, "We would have had to move the channel from one operation to the next and each one would have an operator and they would perform a certain function on the channel."We replaced all that with this piece of equipment, where basically you just load the channel in, you put in the programming and everything is done by the machine," Vexler said during a recent tour of the plant."Many years ago we had an operator doing one function and pressing or punching a hole," he said. "We now have a more highly skilled worker operating this machine, which does all those things automatically."A worker must be able to interface with the equipment and understand the programs, Vexler said. "That requires a higher skill set."It requires knowledge of mechatronics."In a global economy, companies have to use automation to make their operations profitable," said Randy Johnson, chairman of the engineering technology department at CFCC. "They need workers who can operate the machines."Mechatronic devices "might range from a metal-cutting machine to a conveyer system to a robot – all mechatronic devices that will be found in our local industries," he said.Johnson gave another example. "We have numerous vets coming back from our wars that require prosthetic devices. They are mechatronic devices that have mechatronic components," he said."This program is going to teach our students how to interface with these automated devices and design, develop and troubleshoot these devices," he said.In one class, for example, students will take a 3D device they've designed and print it out using CFCC's printer, he said."We were looking at the needs of our industries, and we found that this is a niche that we are not meeting," Johnson said. In fact, only six of 58 North Carolina community colleges have been teaching mechatronics, he said."With automation becoming more prevalent, the need for these people is going to become more prevalent," Johnson said.Several local companies provided input in November when CFCC presented a plan to begin the program. Participants included GE Hitachi, GE Aviation, Flow Sciences and engineers from Fenner Drives.Though Hall attended CFCC, it took a lot more training and experience to bring him to his current job.In fact, he has been machining at GE for 10 years. "I went to college for 2?½ years and got my associate in machine tool and die in the CFCC program," Hall said. "I worked at a couple of factories for eight years. I was in aircraft for five years and then inspection, then moved over to this building," he said.Most new workers will have to have on-the-job training at any company after they graduate."Sure they are going to have to learn more," Johnson said of his mechatronics students, "but we'll give them a good head start."

Wayne Faulkner: 343-2329On Twitter: @bizniznews

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